


Callbacks

by pkmntrashcan



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Aged Up, F/M, First Kiss, Lowkey theater AU, but set in canon, think of them as 17/18 two years post game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:37:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21650905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pkmntrashcan/pseuds/pkmntrashcan
Summary: Everyone had a side gig--only problem is Bede wanted to act, and this career choice required some practice.
Relationships: Bede/Gloria, Beet | Bede & Yuuri | Gloria, Beet | Bede/Yuuri | Gloria
Comments: 26
Kudos: 212





	Callbacks

It was only a matter of time until this happened. 

The moment that training under Opal would officially be over and Bede would officially become Ballonlea’s Gym Leader.

Long gone would be the days of her breathing down his neck during every battle. No direction. No dramatics. 

Just him, his style, his Pokemon, his own Arceus given talent.

But there’s one thing Opal didn’t guide him in: what to do when the League season was over. 

Bede assumed everyone just trained until the new season started up, but then he heard everyone talking about their _plans_. Gym leaders rambling about returning to their side gigs, their hobbies. Nessa had modeling. Milo had his Wooloo. Raihan his strange social media streaming. And so and so forth. Trips. Physical training. Music. 

And he...well he had nothing.

He only knew how to train, and train, and train. But was that all he was set out to do?

Never partaking in any leisurely pastimes in the orphanage, let alone with Rose, now has brought him into the auditorium. Arms folded, eyes carefully watching as his guardian hosts an open casting call.

An audition of all things.

And one that piqued his interest.

But he couldn’t let Opal know this—well aware that she would be all too enthusiastic about him following her footsteps to a T. So he sat quietly and secretly in the back row: slumped in a chair, boredom written all over his face, even though his mind screamed judgements on actors and actresses coming onto the stage. 

Onslaughts of “next” and “honey, no” and “don’t quit your day job,” being barked loudly after several tsks, hums, and ha’s.

It occurs to him that he could do better.

And the temptation within him to try something a ludicrous as this was beginning to gnaw at him. 

He had a knack for commanding attention. 

An eye for drama. 

A flare for the extravagant.

 _‘The biggest romance to hit Galar’s theater scene since I took over the gym,’_ he recalls Opal saying over breakfast a few weeks ago. 

And maybe that’s why he was here. To scope out the competition. To see if this could be his calling. Black cap pulled lower, track suit making noise as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat as actors and actresses continued to leave the room either incredibly confident or terribly discouraged.

(He definitely could do better.)

The house lights soon get him out of his reverie. Silence replacing the loud chatter that was happening between auditionees. Papers tapping together into a neat, sorted pile. The sound of a chair flipping up, shuffled steps coming up the aisle.

A shadow soon looking over him.

His eyes looking up from underneath his cap to see Opal’s knowing gaze staring right down at him. Seeing through his wall of disinterest he was putting up. A stack being handed to him.

“I’ll give you a week to learn this. Find someone. Practice with them.”

His hand clenches around the script. Only sound left in the gym was Crinkling. A long exhale.

Who could he bare to practice with—

“You want me to practice with you?” The disbelief in Gloria’s voice tempting Bede to scoff, turn on his heel, and dismiss everything with an annoyed murmur. 

He, of all people, asking for her assistance.

Unbelievable.

It’s not like he enjoyed her presence. She was simply bearable in comparison. Yet, a request was still a request; Even one towards someone who made his heart race for no decipherable reason. 

And it’s this fact that made him acknowledge how hot his face was getting. His mouth opening before thoughts could process.

“Not like you’re doing anything better, Champion,” he mumbles harshly, realizing his intensity when Gloria’s eyes widen.

A stupid thing to say. 

She was Champion, and he waltzed over here to insult her on one of her rare days off. 

Yet her smile never falters. 

Head shaking. A soft sigh heard as she lifts an index finger and turns her back on him leaving him awkwardly standing in her doorway. Cooing budew borderline teasing him for his lack of tact. 

His eyes narrow. Glaring, almost ready to lean down to their level to ask why they were laughing at his expense.

But a soft call of his name forces him to look back at her.

Her cardigan on. Her hat secured. Her arms gripping the straps of her backpack as she hops to readjust.

“Where are we off to Bede ?”

* * *

They’ve been at it for hours. 

No longer was Gloria sitting across from him in the abandoned gym stage with a furrow browed. Lips pursed, a hum mulling over lines she needed to learn in record time.

Hesitance instead was replaced with light, clear laughs. Over exaggerated batting of her eyelashes, a hand daintily landing over her chest as a coy spark appears in her eye, leaning in so terribly close.

The scent of rose water and jam infiltrating his senses. The warmth of her hand sending shivers up his spine when it lands on his leg.

(Quietly reminding himself that that was an action in the script and not her own volition.) 

His character was supposed to be charismatic. Charming, witty, in control of everything and everyone around him.

Until he met her. Gloria’s character. 

A cunning girl. Playful. A tease.

Gloria doing all too well. 

His breath hitching at their proximity. 

Her own smile breaking through her character. A giggle leaving her.

“Bede it’s your line.”

He freezes. “Shush,” falling off of him quickly as he hastily brings the script between them. He knew where the next scene was going. 

A kiss of all things.

He watched everyone on stage. No life. No passion. 

  
This was the climax. The moment feelings boiled over between the two leads.

But to do this with Gloria was...dare he admit...nerve wracking.

“Let’s start over—,” he pauses, throat feeling incredibly dry as he sees Gloria nod. “We can continue too.”

And for the first time ever in the two years of knowing her he sees Gloria falter. Calm, ready facade shifting into something more inherently shy.

“O-okay,” eyes flicker down into her lap. Clearing her throat before going back into character.

“You know, it’s just you and me here—“ she leans forward again, hand on his leg feeling more shaky, eyes meeting his as if acknowledging what was to come next.

And that’s when it happens. 

He leans forward.

It’s a second long—if even that. His lips mashing into hers in anything, but an elegant way.

But a kiss is a kiss. And a kiss with the girl he definitely didn’t like was still something that has both of them gasping, jumping apart just enough to look at each other with surprise.

And that’s when he begins to understand what Opal meant by pink.

Pink dusting her cheeks visibly even in the overbearing lighting.

Pink in her lips that she was now biting down on.

Pink in the sensation he was feeling as his hand moves to cup her face. Lips a millimeter apart 

Both of them Holding. Breathing. Waiting

“C-can we try aga—“ words stopping the moment she’s capturing his lips clumsily, but eagerly nonetheless. His own efforts not wasted as his other hand settles on her waist. Shared chuckles at the bump of their noses. Slow and steady passes of their lips. Adjusting, learning, feeling how their hearts were pounding in tandem with the delicate slides. The fullness in his heart overwhelming him as he feels Gloria’s smile ghosting on his lips, her hands snaking around his neck, into his hair, Soft noise threatening to escape him.

“Now that’s what I call pink!”

They audibly part. Gloria squeaking. Bede freezing.

Pink now replaced with red. 

Gloria’s hands clasping over her heated face. Bede’s horrified expression looking into the aisle. Only to see his guardian looking at them with a sparkle in her eye.

The same look she gave him when she first recruited him.

“I don’t need to look any further. My child. Champion. You both have the part!” Hands clasping together in glee, Bede and Gloria still not looking at one another as Opal waves her hand walking out of the room with a newfound pep in her step.

“Biggest play in Galar. Ever!”

And when those doors shut tightly behind her they both let out a loud exhale. Gloria peeking at him from behind her fingertips. 

Violet meeting hazel.

Embarrassed meeting overwhelmed.

“I guess,” Bede mumbles his head dipping into the collar he was now lifting, “I guess we need to practice more, huh?”

He cringes. An almost hesitant fall in his voice as he waits for her to reject the bad joke. 

Gloria of all people wouldn’t want to kiss him again.

But her hand softly lays on top of his. Smile easing him, cheeks mirroring the heat undoubtedly on his face too.

“For acting sake or for us?”

He could hear the lilt in her voice, and how she was looking at him hopefully. 

“Both,” an almost incoherent murmur. Fully obscured by his clothing.

She beams nonetheless. “I can work with that.”

And that’s when he feels it. The soft brush of her lips on his cheek. 

“You’re cute when you blush.” And then she’s off. Skipping away with a light hum.

It’s in the abandoned auditorium that his hand clasps over the residual heat of her touch. 

Butterfree fluttering in his stomach.

Heart settling into something not entirely unwelcome.

Maybe acting was his calling. 

And he sure hoped it was hers too.

**Author's Note:**

> : ) I wrote this at the airport hahdjjdfnnfmfjcf sos


End file.
